Creating a digital representation of a physical object can be useful in various situations. Such a digital representation may be considered as an electronic copy of the physical object. The electronic copy affords several advantages such as, but not limited to, ease of storage, processing, sharing and creation of physical copies. For instance, a scanned copy of a physical document, such as a legal contract, may easily be shared between users who may be spread across the globe. Further, the scanned copy may also enable creation of a corresponding physical copy by using, for example, an electronic printer. Moreover, the scanned copy may be processed automatically by a computer. As a result, human burden of performing tasks involving analysis of the physical document may be reduced by a great extent.
In order to create digital representations of physical objects, devices called scanners are commonly used. Scanners usually include sensors for sensing at least one property of an area of interest in the physical object. The sensed information can then be converted from analogue to digital form. For example, in one type of a scanner, optical radiation is used for sensing optical properties such as, but not limited to, reflectance at different portions of a physical document. Accordingly, digital representation of the reflectance at different portions of the physical document is generated and stored for further use.
A scanner typically allows users to control the process of scanning based on a set of parameters. The set of parameters generally determine a quality of digital representation corresponding to the physical object. For example, an optical scanner may allow users to set values corresponding to parameters such as, but not limited to, spatial resolution, color depth, encoding format and output file type. Further, depending on the values corresponding to the set of parameters, a size of the digital representation may vary for a given physical object. The size of the digital representation represents the amount of storage space required to store the digital representation. For example, a higher value of resolution may generate a digital representation that is greater in size due to an increase in amount of information generated by the scanner. In another example, multiple physical objects may be scanned and converted into a single digital file that contains representations of each physical object. Generally, a greater number of physical objects scanned and combined into the single digital file results in a greater file size. Additionally, various types of data compression applied to the digital representation of the physical object can affect the size of the digital representation.
The effect of values corresponding to the set of parameters of the scanner on the size of digital representation is generally not evident to users. Further, for a fixed set of values corresponding to the set of parameters, the size of the digital representation may also vary depending on characteristics of the physical object. Thus, users are usually unaware of the size of an output file containing the digital representation before and during scanning of the physical object. Currently, information about the size of an output digital file is available to users only after scanning processes have been completed. Accordingly, if users desire a different set of values corresponding to the set of parameters, such as a smaller output file size, users are forced to repeat the scanning event using adjusted scanning parameters, based on knowledge of the size of the initial output file that resulted from the initial scanning parameters. This results in indefinitely long time durations to perform scanning operations of physical objects in a desired manner and causes inconvenience to users.